


Mind and Body

by El Staplador (elstaplador)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Community: ladiesbingo, Competition, F/F, Femslash, Ice Skating, Quintuple Drabble, Rivalry, Sports
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-04 01:29:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13353663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elstaplador/pseuds/El%20Staplador
Summary: A rivalry in five drabbles





	Mind and Body

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Разум и тело](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17555924) by [WTF Women 2019 (WTF_Women_2018)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WTF_Women_2018/pseuds/WTF%20Women%202019)



> "I trained off ice... and geared my body up. First I recharged my soul, then I slowly geared up my body." - Carolina Kostner

_Sara_

The train leaves Naples and the gleaming sea behind it and speeds north, heading deep under the Aurunci mountains. North, towards Rome, for the history, or Florence, for the galleries. This time it's Milan, for the opera. Sara leans back in her seat and opens a book. She loves these off-season expeditions. Off-season for her, that is, not for the tourists. She goes alone, if she can manage it; with Mickey, if not.

She always gets a selfie at the most recognisable landmark she can find, and she knows that Mila will have seen and liked it within an hour.

  
Six hours on the ice, stopping for a sip of water, and then dragging herself back out there again. Sara feels sick with fatigue, but she's not stopping yet. She had surgery on her knee four months ago, and coaxing it back to its full functionality has been painful. She's been stretching, running, building up her strength and her stamina; she's had to learn how the ice works, how her body works, all over again. Her first competition is next week. She'll be ready.

Mila will have been on the ice since before Sara woke. Sara has to stay out.

  
_Mila_

You have to want to win. Mila knows that. You have to want it more than anybody else does. (But _everyone_ wants it more than anybody else does. You have to have something more.) You have to be able to sell your skill to the judges, to get inside the music and tell the story, to convey a programme that speaks to the mind and to the heart. That's always been the hardest thing for her.

Mila knows that the younger girls see her as the one to beat. She doesn't care about them. For her, there's only Sara Crispino.

  
There's only Sara Crispino. Off the ice, rivalry melts into understanding and boils up into desire. Their skates come off; later, when they're alone, their clothes come off; and each other's legs and arms assume a new and very immediate importance. Sara is glorious like this, no longer untouchable: velvety eyes, glossy hair, taut muscle. Mila kisses the scar on her right knee (it's new; it might mean the difference between gold and silver), and then works her way up the inside of her thigh.

'You leave that scar alone,' Sara mutters.

Mila doesn't answer. Sara doesn't seem to mind.

  
_Competition_

The pulse of the music hammers in your brain. The blade leaves the ice on the third beat, and the world spins around you, and you land the jump perfectly – _there_ – just on that chord. Mind and body, body and mind. The two can't be separated.

It's Sara's artistic sense as much as her skill that makes her skating so captivating to watch. It's Mila's strength and motivation that makes her jumps so impressive. Each of them is alone on the ice, but it's the presence of the other that drives her onwards. It's the relationship that makes the competition.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [across the divide](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15943619) by [verity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/verity/pseuds/verity)




End file.
